Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The five BIGGEST announcements

POKÉMON has been slowly releasing information about the upcoming generation nine games Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and today we got a few more announcements.

Here’s our round up of the five biggest things revealed in today’s showcase.

New evil team has been revealed

The Pokémon Company

Mela on her Starmobile.[/caption]

We all look back on the antics of Team Rocket fondly, but they haven’t been the series villains since the second generation.

The upcoming evil team is called Starfall, and has different bases dotted around Paldea.

We meet Mela on top of her Starmobile who is the leader of the Schedar Squad of Starfall.

This faction of the group specialises in Fire-type Pokémon, with Mela herself leading a Torkoal.

Group members can send waves of Pokémon at you which you can beat using the new Auto-Battle system.

In the upcoming games you will be able to send Pokémon out by themselves to take on other Pokémon.

Three new Pokémon revealed including some version exclusives

Klawf is the Rock-type crab Pokémon, and has either the ability Shell Armor, which prevents critical hits, or Anger Shell.

Anger Shell is a new ability that drops the user’s defence and raises offence when the Pokémon has less than half health remaining. 

The other two Pokémon revealed are version exclusives, both of which have the ability Flash Fire.

In Pokémon Scarlet you can catch the Fire/Psychic Pokémon, Armarouge.

Armarouge’s signature move is Armor Cannon, a strong special Fire move that lowers the user’s defence.

In Pokémon Violet you can catch the Fire/Ghost Pokémon, Ceruledge.

Ceruledge’s signature move is Bitter Blade, a physical Fire-type move that heals the user for half the damage inflicted on the opponent.

Titan Pokémon revealed

The Pokémon Company

Klawf looks like a return to Totem Pokémon.[/caption]

From what we know it looks like Totem Pokémon from Sun and Moon and returning called Titan Pokémon.

The battle shown in the trailer shows Klawf as the first Titan Pokémon with a supersized look.

However, they may also play out like Sword and Shield’s raid battles as four people can now play the main story together.

Grass-type gym announced

Alongside the Ice-type gym previously announced, a new Grass-type gym has been revealed.

The leader is called Brassius, and he uses Smoliv and Sudowoodo in the trailer.

He uses Grass-type Terastylization on the Sudowoodo to change its type. 

We also see his gym puzzle, suggesting that all the gyms will feature puzzles like in most mainline games.

In Brassius’ gym, he has a puzzle where you have to find Sunflora in the gym.

New Pokémon-themed Switch OLED announced

A new Switch variant will be released on November 4, in preparation for the new games.

The dock features the upcoming box legendaries Miraidon and Koraidon, and the JoyCon are the same colours as the game titles.

There are also graffiti-style Scarlet and Violet designs on the back of the console.

However, the console will be sold separately from the games.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.